Helping Libraries Rebuild After Hurricane Sandy

Like a lot of people, I’ve been devastated to see the impact of Hurricane Sandy and wanted to find ways to help. I’ve donated to a few aid organizations, but once reports started coming in about damaged libraries, I thought that it was an opportunity for folks in LIS to get involved and focus some of our relief efforts. To facilitate that, I’ve put some information up on my blog about libraries that need donations in the hopes that we all can help out our colleagues in need.

Basically what I’ve done is identified libraries that were damaged by the storm by looking at their websites and through the help of this very useful American Libraries article. Then I tracked down their online donation information and compiled a list of a few places that were taking funds. Since we’re usually a pretty generous bunch, I’m hoping to keep track of the amount we raise too! I’m asking people to comment on my blog or on here (or message me if publicly commenting isn’t comfortable) with the amount you donated and where you ended up donating to. If you’re on Twitter, use the hashtag #sandylibraries to share your donation!

The staff at the libraries are working very hard with limited resources to help community members locate needed supplies, information, and more, and start the recovery process. With winter (and more storms) on the way, it’s vital that libraries are able to meet the needs of patrons as effectively as possible. I know we all love our libraries and we love helping people (otherwise why would we want to be librarians?!), so I’m excited to see the response. If anyone else knows of other ways we can help these libraries, or other libraries that need our help, please share in the comments!

5 thoughts on “Helping Libraries Rebuild After Hurricane Sandy”

I’ve donated to a few aid organizations, but once reports started coming in about damaged libraries, I thought that it was an opportunity for folks in LIS to get involved and focus some of our relief efforts. Well,that is really helpful of yours,like sharing this article.Your insights are really helpful for us to know what is the state of the place.Thank you for sharing.

Books for International Goodwill has donated over 5.7 miillion books to libraries in the U.S. and overseas. We have 150,000 news and used books in our warehosue at any one time. We would be happy to provide books to libraries damaged by hurricane Sandy, but do not have a contact. We will cover the cost of transportation (and even cover the cost of a librariian to come to our site in Annapolis, MD to pick books, if tht is feasible). If anyone has a contact to help us get this off the ground, it would be appreciated.

I am a member of the Friends of a Library in Bergen County. We have an annual booksale in March and are very selective as to the books we accept into the sale. After the sale, we always have many books left that have not sold. This year, we were all hoping that somehow, those books could be distributed to libraries affected by Sandy to help them grow inventory once again. Is this something you could facilitate, including having someone come to the library after the close of our sale, select books and then arrange transportation? We are small so do not ourselves have the resources to transport. This sale is a big fundraiser for our library. Thank you and looking forward to your response.

We have not heard anything from the libraries, but continue our generally shipping program (most overseas). We would be glad to find a home for your books, but would have to have them dropped off at our warehouse in Annapolis.